What is love?

So what are my thoughts on this particularly sensitive and vulnerable topic? Well, i wouldn’t say that i can say much regarding love because being only a youngling in my last year of teenager life, i can’t say i’ve had the most extensive observation of the feeling. Personally though, love is a powerful emotion, one from the depths of your being, literally, considering the limbic system is actually rather deep inside your brain.

Recently, one of my housemates went through a break up in perhaps the worst time possible - right before an examination. It made me ponder on what she called “love”. In my current life, i have only ever loved two people, my mother and my stepfather and every other relationship has been, well, not love. I mean sure i say stupid things like i “love” chocolate, i “love” KFC (heart attack in a box) or i “love” American television shows, the reality is that this isn’t actually love. To me, love means being absolutely vulnerable, it means thinking about them for no apparent reason, to miss their company, to realise that perhaps while you were frustrated at their parental control, you failed (and still do fail) to understand that they simply wanted to look out and care for you. It involves so much of one’s being to love someone. I feel it can be divided into two categories: romantic and filial. Filial love extends to most of your immediate family and perhaps to those outside who have shown unconditional love. Romantic love however is so powerful that it should only ever be extended to one person.

When i hear people, especially young teenagers, talk about how they “love” one another, how they said i “love” you days into their online-based relationship or how they can somehow “love” another person in three weeks of betrayal, i have to laugh at such naivety. Love is not some simple emotion that can just be expressed in three words, it is something shown in actions; it is shown in the passion of both liking and hating that person you love, it is shown in the commitment and loyalty spent talking about anything, it is the vulnerability you give another person in knowing the best and worst things about you, the power you give another to destroy you whenever they choose and it is a relentless drive that always keeps you coming back for more. It is also shown in the smallest moments, it is shown when no body else is around, it is shown in the nightly check ups that the other person is well, it is shown by never giving up on a person, it is shown in providing everything you can to make that person succeed. That is what love is to me, something you hate to love, and love to hate, something that is contradictory in its existence, and something that makes you as strong as you are weak.

I have had two romantic relationships in my life thus far, the first was barely a like on the scale of things and the other, in between like and love. Already i have high expectations of love and it will not be simply said, it will be hated and relished. In my eyes though, nothing short of love for another should cause you stop providing for the most important person you love, yourself.

Relishing the beginning of summer so bye.